> My first briefing when I got on the ground in 2004 was that we were past a simple insurgency and now in a small scale civil war that we were trying to stop from becoming a full scale humanitarian crisis.
That's what I thought, and
I was always in the US and getting only US news. Moreover, earlier still,
I believed the remarks reported from Saddam that
the US occupation would have one heck of a time
keeping the Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds from having a
civil war.
W claimed that, of course, the Iraqis could "govern
themselves". Where'd George get that really strong
funny stuff he was smoking?
Net, W failed to see
what large fractions of common street thugs,
one step higher lone criminals, low level gang leaders,
various mid level opportunists, government
officials, religious leaders, tribal leaders,
the Iranians,
and international trouble makers saw: W's
defeat
of Saddam without a serious effort at occupation
had left Iraq
plowed fertile ground for
chaos.
That's what I thought, and I was always in the US and getting only US news. Moreover, earlier still, I believed the remarks reported from Saddam that the US occupation would have one heck of a time keeping the Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds from having a civil war.
W claimed that, of course, the Iraqis could "govern themselves". Where'd George get that really strong funny stuff he was smoking?
Net, W failed to see what large fractions of common street thugs, one step higher lone criminals, low level gang leaders, various mid level opportunists, government officials, religious leaders, tribal leaders, the Iranians, and international trouble makers saw: W's defeat of Saddam without a serious effort at occupation had left Iraq plowed fertile ground for chaos.